On Sat, 25 Jan 2014 15:51:34 -0000, Jean Wood <jeangrahame@live.fr> wrote: > And I am in possession of a death certificate of a great great > grandfather, father of my great grand mother and who, all his life was a > leather worker and, specifically, through many censuses, a saddler. > I was startled to read on the death certificate that (aged nearly 80) he > was described as a machine operator! > His son, a visitor from Belfast, had presumably misread or misunderstood > the question as to occupation. That was indeed the son's occupation in > 1912. Hi Jean, Possibly your great-grandmother's brother, who was giving the information about the death of your ancestor, was feeling upset when registering the death of his father and was not thinking clearly. My 2x great-uncle, Samuel VOKES, was the informant on the death certificate of his mother in October 1916 and on the death certificate of his father in November 1916. Strangely, at his father's death registration, Samuel signed with a cross as his mark whereas the previous month he had signed his own name when he was the informant of his mother's death. I've thought that perhaps Samuel was overcome at the loss of both his parents, in such a short time, and hadn't checked his father's death certificate as I didn't when I was present at registering a death. There was no indication on his 1894 marriage record that he couldn't write and from what I know of this branch of my family it seems unlikely that he would have given a cross as his mark. There was a similar occasion when Samuel's sister-in-law, Charlotte PAYNE (nee BAKER), registered the birth of a daughter in 1886 and a cross was given as her signature. There is no X on her marriage certificate or on the birth certificates of her two elder children, which were presumably signed. Curiously, at the 1886 birth registration, Charlotte's maiden name was given as HARRIES rather than BAKER but this could have something to do with Charlotte PAYNE living back in the community where her HARRIES/HARRIS family lived. Perhaps the registrar knew the family and put down incorrectly what he thought was was Charlotte's maiden name. I shall never know, but it is interesting pondering on such things. Incidentally, Samuel mother was Angel Dore VOKES (nee VEATER formerly PAYNE) which is why the married surname of Samuel's sister-in-law was PAYNE rather VOKES. Josephine